The spine, which forms the backbone of a person, consists of a number of individual bones known as vertebrae. A vertebra can be subjected to a compression fracture in which the normal shape of the bone becomes compressed and distorted. Compression fractures can occur as result of osteoporosis, a disease that results in a loss of normal bone density, mass. Trauma to the spine or other diseases can also cause compression fractures. The fracture of one or more vertebrae can result in extreme back pain. Other end effects of a vertebral fracture include decreased patient height and spinal deformity.
Vertebroplasty is a medical procedure in which bone cement is percutaneously injected into the fractured vertebra to stabilize the vertebra. The main goal of vertebroplasty is to reduce pain caused by the fracture(s) by stabilizing the bone. An undesirable side effect of vertbroplasty procedure is that the bone cement injected into a vertebra has been known to leak. This leaked cement can have undesirable effects on the other tissue and organs internal to the patient. To minimize this leakage, medical practitioners have been known to minimize as much as possible the volume of cement that is injected in the bone. This can result in too little cement being injected in the bone to have the desired therapeutic effect.
An alternative procedure for treating vertebral fractures that is related to vertebroplasty is kyphoplasty. A kyphoplasty procedure involves placement of a balloon into a collapsed vertebra, inflating the balloon to compress the cancellous tissue internal to the bone in order to create a void. Once the void is created, bone cement is injected into the void to stabilize the fracture. Many patients have experienced appreciable relief after undergoing a kyphoplasty procedure. However, when performing a kyphoplasty procedure, it can be difficult to control where within the vertebral bone the balloon inflates. This makes it difficult to control exactly where in the bone the void is created. Consequently, it is possible that the void will be created in space occupied by previously healthy bone or that the void may not be positioned at the location at which the injected cement will have the most effect in stabilizing the fracture.